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Monolog der Iphegenia

Introduction

This scena was composed in 1798 and published in the same year. It was later issued as part of Reichardt’s Lieder der Liebe anthology of 1804. In a letter to Goethe of this year Zelter remarked on the music in unfriendly fashion, comparing his rival’s setting to an unnecessary operation on a healthy body. Goethe had originally written Iphigenie in Tauris (in prose) in 1778 for the actress Corona Schröter, his mistress of the time; in the Weimar production of that year the poet himself had played Orestes. The version that Reichardt set was the fourth, now in blank verse. Goethe completed this in 1786 in Rome, and it was given its first performance in the Burgtheater, Vienna—the play’s Austrian connection may account for the fact that Schubert was interested enough in this music in 1815 to make his own handwritten copy (now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge) of Reichardt’s score. The ‘Monolog’ is placed at the very beginning of the play (before the entrance of Arcas), where Iphigenia stands in front of the temple of Diana. Goethe mentions nothing about a chorus which Reichardt introduces to echo the heroine’s words, a device that Zelter also criticizes as extraneous—in fact it is highly effective because it suggests key thoughts resounding in the heroine’s mind. The plight of Iphigenia who feels herself enslaved in her marriage to Thoas must have appealed to a young composer who had already responded sympathetically to Gretchen in extremis. This extended use of recitative was very much a subject of study for the younger composer; and his contemporary interest in adding a supplementary chorus to a song is shown by his setting of the Szene aus Faust, D126, at the end of 1814.

Recordings

'This would have been a massive project for even the biggest international label, but from a small independent … it is a miracle. An ideal Christ ...'Please give me the complete Hyperion Schubert songs set – all 40 discs –and, in the next life, I promise I'll "re-gift" it to Schubert himself … ...» More

'This enterprising, often revelatory set should intrigue and delight anyone interested in the development of the Lied' (Gramophone)'Since making music with friends was Schubert's whole raison d'etre, this 3-CD box is an inspired idea … Led by the soprano Susan Gritton, ...» More

Out into your shadows, rustling treetops
of this ancient, sacred grove, dense with foliage,
as though into the goddess’s silent sanctum
I step even now with feelings of trepidation,
as if I were entering it for the first time
and my spirit cannot accustom itself to the place.
For so many years a higher will, to which
I surrender, has kept me concealed here.
But I am still a stranger, as at the beginning.
Alas! The sea separates me from my loved ones,
and I spend long days on the shore
seeking the land of the Greeks with my soul;
and in answer to my sighs the waves
bring me only their dull roar.

Woe to anyone who, far from parents and siblings,
leads a life of solitude! Sorrow gnaws away
the prospect of happiness from their lips;
their thoughts always stray
to their father’s home, where the sun
first unlocked the heavens for them,
where, playing together, brothers and sisters
are ever more closely tied by bonds of affection.

I do not quarrel with the gods; but
the plight of women is to be pitied.
A man is master at home and in war,
resourceful when in foreign lands.
His property gives him joy; victory crowns him!
An honourable death awaits him.
How closely linked to his is a woman’s happiness!
Even to belong to a harsh husband
is a duty and a comfort. How wretched for her,
when a hostile fate drives her far away!
And so Thoas, a noble man, keeps me here
in solemn, sacred bonds of slavery.
Ah, with what shame do I confess to you
that I serve you with silent reluctance, goddess,
You who rescued me! My life
should be freely devoted to your service.
I have always set my hopes on you,
and you are still my hope, Diana, who took me,
the outcast daughter of the great king.
into your gentle, holy embrace.

Daughter of Zeus, if you caused the high-born man
anguish by demanding his daughter,
if you laudably accompanied godlike Agamemnon,
who brought his beloved child to the altar for you,
from Troy’s encircled walls
back to his fatherland,
if you preserved his wife, Electra and his son,
his fairest treasures:
then, at last, give me my loved ones again,
and rescue me, whom you rescued from death,
from life here, a second death!